The Henson Journals

[19]

Whit Tuesday, June 10th, 1919.

Dear Lord Haldane

I send herewith the Report of the debate in the Representative Church Council, & I have taken leave to add a review of the "Report" which I wrote for the 'Edinburgh', and an article in the 'Modern Churchman' which will serve to show you what are the Reforms which seem to me really urgent.

I do not think the 2nd Reading will be refused, but I shall be greatly astonished if the Bill does not receive amendment & I suspect that any serious amendment will render it unacceptable to its more ardent supporters.

What I shd like wd be to drive a wedge between those who are seriously seeking practical reforms, & those who are pursuing an ideal properly incompatible with the Establishment as we have received it. And a clear indication that you wd be willing to assist some modest measure simplifying the process of ecclesiastical legislation would have considerable effect.

It seems to me that the inefficiency of the Establishment can be no interest of the Christian or of the patriot; & English Churchmen, while they may, & ought to, be held to the essential conditions of Establishment, ought not to be driven to the dilemma of accepting removable defects in its working.

You in Scotland are a religiously united people in spite of Disruptions & Secessions; but we in England are [20] divided by the sacerdotal movement wh tends to identify itself with the division between clergy & laity. Social & political factors enter & widen the breach, but the original & determining fracture is religious.

Yours ever sincerely,

H. H. Hereford

Scarcely had I started work on a diocesan letter before Lilley appeared, and wasted more than an hour of my best working time. Then an impecunious parson, Parry, from Knowbury, came to lunch, & afterwards poured out the statement of his needs. Lilley walked with me for two hours, and then I wrote letters. After dinner, the night being warm, I walked with Olive in the garden & we conversed much upon her approaching marriage. Then she came indoors, & sang. Thus ended a very ill–spent day.

I wrote to Lord Haldane sending him the Report of the debate in the Representative Church Council, my Review in the Edinburgh Review, & my article in the Modern Churchman. How far his Lordship is seeking his own political ends, and how far he is genuinely concerned for larger interests, I am quite unable to determine: but at least I would have him fully informed of the position which I myself adopt with respect to the Establishment.

---